Laugh for today…

I have learned that when I pull out something new for Virginia it is best to let William play with it a bit before I introduce it to Virginia. Here is a perfect example…

On Monday I pulled out the doorway jumper and hung it while the kids were napping. It was of course the first thing William noticed when he got up. He immediately went over to it, pulled it back (way back), yelled “ONE, TWO, THREEEEE!” and let go. Good thing Virginia wasn’t in it. He then ran into his room to get his Ebee doll and proceeded to push him in it for the next 20 minutes.

Glad he got that out of his system!

He then shared his snack with Ebee  

and when Ebee didn’t eat it, he took it back  

By the time Virginia got up William was busy with something else and she got to enjoy the doorway jumper all by herself.

I laughed when I saw this picture. She must have seen William coming…

Don’t worry Miss V, he only wanted to teach you how to use the vacuum.

And while he vacuumed he put his baby in the exesaucer. Can you tell William has spent a lot of time at home with his mommy lately?

Around the House

I bought some beautiful antique cabinet doors at a yard sale about a year ago. I left them in my very creative and talented brother’s basement and told him that I sure would love to use them as the front of a cabinet for the tv. One year later I have a BEAUTIFUL cabinet for my tv. The doors are very old and he did a great job getting the wood on the new part to match the old wood. He even got the new hinges to look old. Apparently he put the wood in water with bugs in it so that they would eat holes in the wood and he put the hinges in pee (????). Thanks Heath! It is absolutely beautiful!

My second gallery wall is halfway complete. Ryan got all of the frames hung on the top half this weekend. 
I have some newsprint still hanging, holding spots for some of William’s artwork.  

I am loving the look of the floor to ceiling frames.

I have a fun project planned for the weekend (if it doesn’t rain)- a GIANT outdoor chalkboard. I am hoping to hang it on the fence in the back corner of our yard. I will post pictures when it’s done!

Free Wagon Rides

The Forgotten Family Member

Don’t worry, Virginia is NOT the forgotten family member…

I was taking some pictures of my sweet baby girl when Dora decided it was her turn to be in the spotlight.

So I let her have her moment and then sent her out in the yard to play  

This next one cracks me up!

Learning to LIKE sand

Ryan had a bag of sand sitting around in the backyard last week and William got into it and really enjoyed playing with it. You may recall from our beach trip earlier this summer that William was not a fan of the sand so to see him playing with it in the backyard was great! He still freaked out if it got in his shoes so I knew we weren’t ready for a sandbox but he did enjoy digging in it. On Ryan’s weekly trip to Lowes he picked up a bag of play sand and we turned William’s water table into a sand table. He had a great time playing in it all weekend. Baby steps…

Summertime

…is for taking baths in the baby pool on the deck!

William has recently started freaking out when he gets his hair washed. Ryan usually does baths and I know now why I hear screaming coming from the bathroom….

Ryan is not the least bit concerned with water or soap getting in William’s eyes. Nor is concerned about pulling his hair…poor child.

Summertime is also for buying very sugary popsicles from the ice cream truck just before dinner.


And when he finished his Bomb Pop Jr. he asked for more ice cream…and I said YES!

Round two I went with the frozen Danonino yogurt I had popped in the freezer last week. Thank you Danonino Yogurt commercial for the great idea! What a genius marketing tool! …and a much healthier choice. And you are all dying to know if he actually ate dinner after two popsicles- if you call crackers and hummus and some more yogurt dinner, then yes Oh and a buddy fruit because it wouldn’t be a meal around here if it didn’t include a buddy fruit.
And just because I need to include a picture of Miss V…

She was ready for William to finish his popsicle so mommy would stop taking pictures and put her to bed!
In other news around here my Tante Anja (Tante is aunt for all of you non-dutch speaking readers) flew in Tuesday from Switzerland. We were there early on Wednesday to see her and William was so excited he gave her the stomach bug! And just because he didn’t want my mom and dad to feel left out he gave it to them too! And of course he couldn’t stop there. Virginia got it Thursday afternoon and Ryan, Friday morning. And well, I’m just sitting around here waiting on the bug to get me. I’m sure it won’t pass me by. I’m just not that lucky. For all of you local readers sitting there thinking how you hope you have not been around us this week, don’t worry, we have not left the house since WEDNESDAY!!! (and before Wednesday our only outing had been my parents’ house Tuesday morning) That’s not entirely true, we did head over to my parents house to play for a bit this morning. While I do love to stay at home we were all getting a little stir crazy and since we had already passed our bug onto everyone at my parents’ house we figured that was a safe bet for an outing today. So, if I don’t post for a few days you’ll know why.